Networks Offer Pearl Harbor Reminiscences

Remembering Pearl Harbor during the next few days will be no problem, even for those who weren`t born on Dec. 7, 1941.

All of the major TV networks and many cable stations have special programs to mark the 50th anniversary of the attack on American military installations in Hawaii.

In addition, a blitz of World War II action dramas can be found all over the dial. NBC went so far as to purchase rights to the miniseries Pearl, which ran 13 years ago on ABC. Parts 1 and 2 aired Tuesday and Wednesday; the concluding installments are scheduled Friday and Saturday.

The irony: Television generally avoids programs with a primary appeal to viewers over 54, because advertisers have little desire to reach the senior set. But it is unlikely anyone under 55 can remember Pearl Harbor any more than they remember the Maine or remember the Alamo.

The difference with Pearl Harbor is that much of television`s hierarchy was around on Dec. 7, 1941. It was important to them, so they`re going to make it important to you.

The network devotion to historical commemoration does have its bounds. The common denominator of the network Pearl Harbor specials is that they have been positioned in time periods where they will do minimal ratings damage.

ABC has scheduled its major effort, Pearl Harbor: Two Hours That Changed the World, tonight at 9, opposite Cheers and company -- a block in which ABC is essentially off the air anyway.

David Brinkley, who has vivid personal memories of The Day That Lives in Infamy, will swap recollections with contemporaries from both sides in a program co-produced by Japan`s NHK network.

At 11:30 tonight, Nightline will present the first of back-to-back programs from Japan. Among the topics will be Japanese resentment over the way America is commemorating the anniversary of their nation`s treachery. Apparently, it`s OK for the Japanese to get bent out of shape over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but bad form for Americans to mark the event without which there would have been no Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

One interesting sideshow of the specials will be monitoring the contortions the networks go through so as not to hurt Japanese feelings.

Japanese-American relations will be on the agenda again Friday when Ted Koppel is host of a town meeting from Tokyo in the Nightline time period.

CBS` Remember Pearl Harbor will run in place of the network movie from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday, the evening when audience levels are lowest.

CBS bagged the highest-profile name on the Pearl Harbor guest rosters, Norman Schwarzkopf. The retired hero of Operation Desert Storm, who was 7 years old on Pearl Harbor Day, will share top billing with folksy Charles Kuralt.

Further hyping the marquee will be reminiscences from Bob Hope, Ted Williams, James Michener and Maxine Andrews of the Andrews Sisters.

CBS also received cooperation from a Japanese television company, the Tokyo Broadcasting System, in assembling its special.

NBC is burying its major Pearl Harbor effort. An evergreen fictional miniseries gets four nights in prime time, but the news department-produced Pearl Harbor: A Nation Remembers has been shunted off to Saturday afternoon at 12:30. Part of the justification for the low-rent time period is the ability to offer live coverage of official events in Pearl Harbor, including President Bush`s speech from the U.S.S. Arizona memorial.

Not even the presence of Tom Brokaw as host merited an upgraded time period for the hourlong special. Brokaw also will be anchoring NBC Nightly News on Friday and Saturday from Pearl Harbor.

President Bush`s speech also will be the centerpiece of a special at noon Saturday on CNN. The two-hour program is part of a week of Pearl Harbor reminiscing on the cable network.

The week`s events will be summarized Sunday night at 9, when CNN presents Pearl Harbor: 50 Years After.